Since the beginning of religion on this planet, there
have been people who were predicting the destruction of the earth. It
is pretty obvious that all of the predictions in the past have been
wrong, at least up until the time you read this article. It seems there
is always some religious nut who claims some startling new discovery or
understanding has been made that gives a proof of the end of things.
You would think people would eventually catch on and not get swept up
in these things, but that is not the case. We have had the Jupiter
Effect and Y2K in recent years and now we have the Mayan demise of
planet earth. The claim is that on December 21, 2012 (the winter
solstice) the end will come.

WHO STARTED THIS FAD

What has given this claim energy is the
fact that the Mayan calendar, which is in many ways superior to the
Gregorian calendar that we use, contains a cycle which ends on that
date. The press has given this whole claim extraordinary publicity.
Several scams using the Mayans and claims that they were involved with
aliens have already been exposed.

The first thing to examine in a situation like this, is who is making
the claims, what motives do they have, and what academic background do
they have? Here are the primary sources of the latest doomsday fad:

José Argüelles
is an art historian having taught at Princeton University and the San
Francisco Art Institute and founder of The Planet Art Network. Since
1972 he has been a student of Tibetan meditation master Chogyam Trungpa
Rinpoche and a promoter of UFO mythology and a variety of Tibetan
myths.

Terence McKenna is an
avid user and promoter of psychedelic drugs, and promoter of Gnosticism
and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Well known for his 1992 book The Archaic Revival: Speculations on
Psychedelic Mushrooms, the Amazon, Virtual Reality, UFOs, Evolution,
Shamanism, the Rebirth of the Goddess, and the End of History.

Whitley Strieber is a
promoter of atheism and author of 2012:
The War for Souls and Communion.

Adrian Gilbert
is a promoter of Christian mysticism, yoga, tarot, and a variety of New
Age promoters of astrology.

Daniel Pinchbeck is a
promoter of exotic cultures and Gnosticism, and the claim that we need
to “Exorcise Christia from Christianity.”

Lawrence Joseph is the
author of Apocalypse 2012 and
promoter of Mayan shamanism.

Roland Emmerich is a
film-maker of disaster movies including Independence Day who will
release the movie 2012 to
theaters through Sony Pictures in November of this year.

Notice that none of these promoters are scientists or have any
recognition in archeology or anthropology. These are New Age promoters,
many of whom are heavily involved in drugs and are opposed to
Christianity.

WHAT ARE THE FACTS

The Mayan calendar is more accurate than the Julian calendar used
in Europe from the time of Caesar up to 1582 and the Gregorian calendar
used from 1582 to the present. Scientists calculate that the earth
orbits the sun in 365.2422 days. The Mayan calendar gets 365.2420 days
while the Gregorian calendar gets 365.2425 days and the Julian calendar
gets 365.25 days. Part of this accuracy was the addition of a year zero
which readjusted the Mayan calendar as it went along. The Mayan
scholars used astronomy to calibrate and maintain their calendar.

While the Mayans were advanced in
their astronomy and their calendar, they were incredibly primitive in
others areas. They never learned to use the wheel, to use the true
arch, to count in millions, to weigh things, to develop the potter’s
wheel, to develop animal transport, to use the plow, nor to develop
metal tools or pulleys. All the pyramids and huge buildings were built
by human muscle using wooden tools.

Mayans practiced human sacrifice, self mutilation, psychedelic
drugs, and worship of local rulers. All misfortune was viewed as caused
by evil spirits or disfavor of the gods, and religious practices
involved torture and drug experiences.

The materials circulated by the promoters of Mayan mysticism do
not agree with each other on very many details. This is mainly due to
the fact that they are all New Age promoters having different theories
about the Mayan calendar and its cycles. There is no archeological
support for the 2012 theory. There is some devastating factual work on
Wikipedia about the promoters of 2012, especially Argüelles.

The Mayan culture offers no guide to life and no way to promote
peace and understanding among people. This is a doomsday cult
presentation that has nothing to offer and is in the “scam” category.

CONCLUSIONS

This is another wild fad in the fringe area of humanity. There are no
aliens making plans to come and destroy us who can be reached
spiritually and with whom we can make deals to be spared. December 21,
2012 is just another day in history and like Y2K and the Jupiter Effect
it will pass and the promoters of this doomsday spirit will be laughing
all the way to the bank. Remember that Jesus said “For many shall come
in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall
hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all
these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. ... And then
shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate
one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive
many. ... And this gospel of the kingdom [the Church] shall be preached
in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end
come” (Matthew 24:5-14). Christianity offers answers, hope and
solutions to the problems of life. Engaging in useless destructive
prophecies offers no solutions and no hope.